The Indian women trumpeting their caste on Instagram

On Instagram, young ladies in small towns and villages all over India happily proclaim their class identities, making it the most recent fight for caste politics.

The BBC spoke to a few of these influencers across the race gap to understand what’s driving the trend and tracked 100 balances.

A woman wearing a dark dress is the subject of the lens. She is using her hands on the button to point a rifle at the sky.

” Who are you”? asks an accompanying narration. ” We are Brahmins”, a words answers. The girl smiles, and the noise of two shots is heard.

Shivi Dikshit, a 24 year old from Uttar Pradesh, who shares short clips about her Brahmin race with her 150, 000 Instagram followers, is just one of the thousands of Instagram Reels she has created.

Hinduism’s deeply hierarchical caste system, which dates back at least 3, 000 years, puts Brahmins or priests at the top and Dalits ( formerly untouchables ) at the bottom.

Caste-based discrimination has been prohibited in India for years, but the country’s 200 million Caste continue to rank among the most underrepresented people. Despite changes, class continues to be a significant indicator of personality in conversation in some parts of the nation.

Ms. Dikshit criticizes the idea of inter-caste connections and rejects racial policies intended to empower Dalits in the movies, which were shot at home and have received more than a million views.

” Bengalis have a historical upbringing]unlike another class groups]. My home has a priestly tradition. She says while sitting on the balcony of her family-owned church in the northern city of Meerut that she wants to spread the values we practice and remove myths about my community.

Ms. Dikshit is one of the thousands of American people who are using Instagram to discuss their caste in novel and clever way.

The majority of them are from small towns and villages, which is unusual for a nation where, in contrast to men, very few people reveal their caste and religion names in public. However, according to them, having access to social media gives them a chance to openly express their opinions and challenge masculine limitations.

According to a study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies ( CSDS ) between 2014 and 2019, there has been a “democratization of the social media space,” particularly among the “less educated and those living in rural areas.”

The Dalit community has reacted to those with vehement opinions like those of Ms. Dikshit, and not just women from wealthy groups.

Seemi Milind Jadhav, a 22- yr- ancient beautician, goes by the name Bhimachi Sherni on Instagram. It’s a guide to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a Dalit logo and the designer of India’s law, while Sherni means tiger in Urdu.

” I look upon Ambedkar as a father figure. But, I am my husband’s lioness”, she says.

Ms. Jadhav, who resides on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, claims she started making Reels after finding “myths and propaganda being spread by upper-caste handles on Instagram”.

” I started educating myself about Ambedkar’s lessons and class politics, gradually I found a entire society of like- thinking Dalits online”, she told me.

We then go through some brainstorming and come up with our unique Reels in response.

Most of the people we spoke to told the BBC that they switched to Instagram after India banned it in 2020 and made their website debut on the Foreign game TikTok.

The topics they discuss are varied, but recurring themes include depictions of” the best” Brahmin or Dalit man and a strong opposition to inter-caste unions.

These viewpoints may seem contradictory to a contemporary portrayal of India, but information shows it’s not typical. More than 60 % of respondents in a Pew Research Center survey in 2019-2021 said it was crucial to stop both men and women from separating into different groups.

These bloggers also draw attention to the divisions between religion and society in this nation.

Brahmin people advocate bringing together Brahmins and the Hindu society to “help with the building of the Hindu country.”

However, Dalit people like Ms. Jadhav object to the idea. They say if that happens, the leaps the area has made in accessing education, career and a life of integrity will remain halted, pushing Dalits up to the profits.

The pattern, according to Hilal Ahmed, an associate professor at CSDS, demonstrates how people are rejecting commonly held notions that they are not interested in politics.

” Women are seen as messengers of culture and tradition that are derived from class and religion”, he explains.

It’s not surprising that they want to possess those names and express their opinions about them now that they have a means of expression.

He continues, however, that these women frequently perpetuate existing cultural gaps in the name of delight.

” It’s a paradox. They make the claim that their communities are in danger while also claiming that they do n’t fear anyone.

Some of the information shared is likewise controversial, with Clips bordering on love speech and violence. After the BBC reached out to Meta about a few of these movies, the company removed them from the system.

A Meta director claimed that the company’s community standards forbid content that targets a person or group of people based on their race, which is” a protected characteristic.”

” Any information that threatens or incites crime is also prohibited”, the director added.

The women, however, ignore allegations of caste and violence and declare they are just trying to unite their neighborhood.

Samiksha Sharma, who describes herself as Brahmin on Instagram, says she is typically accused of “dividing persons” and receives hostile comments

” But, I do n’t see it that way”, the 24- season- old adds.

” I promote our society by drawing inspiration from different Brahmin manages.”

Ms. Jadhav claims the platform helps her navigate patriarchy through technology in a nation where millions of young adult women are unable to even own a mobile phone without their parents ‘ consent.

She secretly recorded the Reels at a shop where she worked to support her family when she first began making them in 2019 and did not tell her kids.

But she claims that the website solidarities she established gave her the strength to tell them the truth and proclaim her personality.

They were shocked but glad to see how I was serving the community. So now I do n’t need to hide”.